Loving and Learning About Flowers in My Zone 8-8b Gardens. (with a family photo from time to time) LIFE BEGAN IN A GARDEN...

Worry is like a rocking chair, it's gives you something to do but gets you nowhere!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

What Do You Really Know About Plants?

You know you are a gardener when.........your kids choose to use plants in their Science Fair Projects.On the left we have the Middle Medium Kid. She is going to change the ph in the water/soil and see how it affects the growth of plants.. She is undecided at this point what plants/seeds she will use. On the right we have the Youngest Medium Kid. She is going to see if music has any affect on the growth of plants. She is going to use Pansies for the entire month of October. Two will be played Country Music, two will be played Gospel Music and two will have no music at all. She will use Miracle Grow Moisture Control to pot them up (six inch pots), play the music at the same time for the same length everyday with the same amount of watering. This is the same child that is raising the Monarchs. She has 13 in the cage right now. She took 4 to school this morning to put in the butterfly cage there. We also counted over 30 caterpillars on our plants at 7:30 this morning! Wonder how many the wasps will get? Oh well, they part of the life cycle too.

If you have any tips and or ideas about these projects please let us know. Not that these kids will take any advice on their projects. Once they make up their minds how they want to do a project.......that's the way it's done. Will keep you updated on the progress of these experiments. We may all learn something.

14 comments:

oh girl!!! I will look for my info on this...I did a project much the same when I was a kid...I also have a great article somewhere that will give them some ideas how to go about this experiment adventure!this is so exciting!

I think this is marvelous. I like the idea of doing things like this has a lot of merit.

I do know and saw experiments in Russia (the old Soviet Union) where two plants were placed in a soundproof room. Both plants were wired to the same machines that are used in Lie detector work. Then a man came into the room and ripped one of the plants out of the pot and threw it on the floor. And he then left the room.

And some time later, the same man came back into the room where the untouched plant was located and it went crazy. The little pen that makes the marks went off the charts. The plant was reacting to the man's appearance in the room. It was there and saw what the man did to the companion plant.

How the plants are able to detect this was then unknown but they did detect it. And the same experiments involved playing music in greenhouses. Soft soothing music versus rock and roll and the soft soothing music produced the most growth.

You might be able to go online and type in Russian Experiments with Plants and music or something like that and bring up the programs.

you must be fit to pop Darla, that's brilliant that they're so interested in growing. There's been a lot of research done into the effect of thoughts and sounds on the molecular structure of water (google Masaru Emoto) and then the impact this has on plants (and us since we're 80% water too). The Royal Horticultural Society here in the UK did a study this summer on the effect of different voices on plants - see article here http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/gardens/article6005645.ece . My prediction would be that the gospel music plants will do best :o)

My child won honorable mention one year in the fifth grade on a Science Fair Project (here that is the highest grade they do it). What set his project apart was not what he did but the thesis he came up with. Now if he had taken it one step further and figured out why his theory did not work then he may have won. Good luck to the girls and tell them the whole point is to reason and think and not just to prove things-my humble opinion and a good experience win or lose.